Does Boxing Strengthen Your Core, and How?
Blog post by *Ann Edwards of Elite Sports
Boxing as a very common combat sport is usually known as the gentleman’s sport. Intense, extensive, and extremely rewarding, boxing can be used as the foundation of all the other combat games. So far if we look at one of the most esteemed and well-respected combat games we will simply get back to boxing. The main reason behind this is that boxing helps you increase your body range, helps you open the muscles, and improves your response time. We have seen that most people try to limit themselves with one combat style but boxing helps with other styles of fighting as well. Boxers are known to be one of the finest, leanest yet strongest people on the planet. The main reason is that it is a sport that helps you engage your whole body.
Most people think that boxing is all about your upper body strength. The way you execute a punch or the way you carry your upper body is all about the strength of your upper body, especially your arms. However, this is not the fact, within boxing your whole body is involved. It starts from the way you carry yourself through your feet, the footwork, and the posture as well. You need to know what posture suits you the most and how close you need to be when you are fighting. These simple details will help you throw a powerful punch. Another common misconception is that punch is all about your arms, fist, and wrist. However, technically the strength of your core drives your punch. You need to use your core to generate power and then deliver this power via your arms and fist.
With the help of this article, we will mainly highlight the importance of core. We will also talk about the reasons you need to work on your core strength. To help the beginners pick their battles we will also list some tips that can help the beginner train for better core strength.
Why is Core Strength Important for Boxing?
When you look at a boxer, you notice that he is lean but you also notice that he has very well-sculpted abs. This means that working on the core strength is a part of boxing. As an ultimate combat sport, boxing requires a fighter to include a full body. You will be using your legs, arms, shoulders, hands, and even your mind. Your body coordination will help you win the game and to be better at it, you need to make your whole body stronger. Even if you look at other sports you will see that abs are important because it is one of the most important muscle groups that will help you relay your upper and lower body together. As the center point of your body, your core is a place that provides stability to your body and helps you with all the defensive moves. As a boxer, you need to generate power which means the core will work as an engine.
For the beginners who are still wondering how this will help them, we have listed some important benefits of core strength:
Generating Power
As we have discussed earlier, your punching power will be generated through the core. For the transfer of power, your core is very important. Boxers need to know about the kinetic chain so they can understand how energy is generated and passed throughout the body. With a strong set of abs, you will see that you can have better energy, and your lower abdomen, chest, shoulder along arms are involved in delivering a strong punch.
Better Stability
As the center of the body, it helps in connecting the upper and lower body. Your middle part of the body helps you table because according to physics that’s where the gravitation is applied. In the art of boxing, once someone delivers a knockout punch it gets very important to maintain balance. With the help of a stronger core, you will be able to regain balance right away and your body will be stable. On the contrary, if your core is not strong you will easily fumble and fall.
Control
If you like boxing, you might have noticed that there is a very important method that is used for countering the punches. In most cases, the opponent doesn’t slip or get away, instead, he just moves his torso and as a result, he can avoid the punch. If the core is not strong, you will not have control over your body. Some people even lose balance and they fall right away, this is common in a beginner who is not aware of the power of core muscles.
Strength and Endurance
We keep talking about the fact that boxers are very strong. This also means that they can easily work longer hours without getting tired. As a boxer you will have to spend multiple hours in the ring, sweating and practicing. To be able to do that you need to have full control and enough strength in your body. If your core is strong and you know how to use it, you will be able to work out for long hours in the ring without getting tired. This will also be very important for the overall muscle strength because your main aim is to rely highly on the core strength while moving in the ring.
Simple Exercise to Train Your Core
For exercises, you need to add some combination exercises. Abs workouts especially plank, crunches, pushups, and cycling play a very important role. To get rid of the love handles, focus on the side plank as well as simple exercises that can help you burn some extra calories.
Bottom Line
To sum it all up, your body drives strength from all parts of the body. Within boxing, you need to ensure that your main energy for punching is extracted from the core. After you generate the energy from the core, you will then use this energy and convey it through your shoulders, arms and finally let it out through your fist. In short, if your core is not strong enough, this will impact the quality of your punch. Boxing is more linked with the strength of your abs and this is the reason you might have noticed that boxers have a very lean and strong body. To become a better boxer working on muscle strength, especially the strength of your core, is very important. Instructors make sure that every fighter has some kind of core workout in their exercise plan.
*Ann Edwards is the fully qualified personal trainer from Elite sports. She has been helping people in the
field of bodybuilding and fitness from more than a decade. Her career in nutrition and physical therapy
has made her a fine addition for our team.